Poems, Notes, and Drawings

Necessity and an Ice-Water Bath

When we take more than we need, we take it from each other. And when we take it from each other, we steal. And what we steal, we waste, because it is more than we need. But the very crime is its punishment. It is poverty. It is war. It is a series of complicated political and religious beliefs that are no more than excuses. It is the unwillingness to face the simple truth — and truth is always simple — that what we do in this world as individuals — each and every little deed — radiates outward like rings on a pond into which a pebble is tossed. The rest is a story — tragic, yes, and beautiful too, because as actors and authors we are able to change direction at any given moment. And that moment is now. No system is needed. No plan. No long, drawn out training, no quest for enlightenment, no belief in past or future lives. It is simplicity itself. It is a bright-red robin in an ice-water bath. With such a glorious moment at hand, why wait for an imagined summer?

NOTA BENE

As a Category, “Everything and Nothing” is roughly equivalent to “Marginalia,” but with an added twist: it’s the name of a book written by Ross Freeman, the hero of my unpublished novel, The Smiling Eyes of Children.

community

Small Flat Stone, Handpainted

A confident, nattily-dressed frog smoking a fat cigar, by Glen Ragsdale (1955-1974). Title: “Billy.” Signed by the artist. On granite, about half an inch thick, worn smooth by the Kings River in California.

Signature For The Old Language — 2013

Drawing for the New Revised Edition.Stories, Poems, and Memoir in Armenian Translation.